Log; Completed

[popular-likeme.livejournal.com]

When; December 22, Evening
Rating; G
Characters; Shizune (medic_assistant) and Child!Glinda (popular_likeme)
Summary; After a day of ice cream, ruined dresses, and playing "pirates", Shizune takes a cursed 7 year-old Glinda back to her apartment and tells her a story. A true story that hits close to home for Shizune.
Log;


Shizune was tired. Even with the help of several volunteers, including Haku of the Mist, Naruto, Tenten, Hinata, and Agent Mulder, a female agent Mulder, at that, there had been a lot of kids to look after. Itachi. Kisame. Sasuke. Greed. Evey. Kitty. Yotsuba. All had been through the area at least once, and there was bound to have been more whose names she didn't catch. But by far the most demanding had been the hyper little blond child she had finally managed to get back home. Glinda the Good. She put on a smile, patting the woman's... the child's... bed, having managed to get her ready with some effort. "Ready for that story you wanted, Glinda?" Shizune didn't really... she wasn't sure if she wanted to tell it. But she was just a child, right? She may not even remember tomorrow... and if it made her go to sleep...

“Yeah,” Glinda answered through a yawn. She had struggled a little to get onto the high bed, and eventually had to ask Shizune for a boost up. Now snuggled beneath the layers of pink sheets and blankets, she fought back another yawn. The effects of the sugar from the ice cream had worn off, and the exhaustion from constantly running around was beginning to get to her.

“But ‘Nene, can you make it have a happy ending? I don’t like stories without happy endings.”

She wanted a happy ending. Shizune could have laughed, if she was the loudly derisive type. But she wasn't, and she figured twisting the truth for a child couldn't hurt much. "Of course, Glinda." The medic leaned back in the chair she had pulled up to the bed, closing her eyes for a moment. How did all these things start? "Once upon a time... there was a king and a queen of different castles." She began, voice soft. "The king ruled over the dark lands, and the queen rules over the light land." It was almost amusing to the woman that she was telling it like this, but at the same time, sobering. "And the king and queen each had a trusted servant, we'll call them... The Gray Man and the Healing Woman. The Gray Man faithfully served the evil king, and the Healing Woman served the Queen. And it is these two people that the story is about."

Little Glinda listened intently. She was slightly disappointed to hear that the story wasn’t going to be about the king and queen. But a bedtime story was a bedtime story, so she kept quiet, speaking up only after Shizune had paused.

“Those are silly names. Don’t they have real names?”

"... No, no one remembers their real names." Shizune covered quickly. "It's a story that was hidden for a long time... so the names got lost." She cleared her throat, continuing. "Anyway... so these two servants of the king and queen... let's talk about them. The Gray Man served the evil king as the trusted, right-hand man. He was a doctor, and worked many evil experiments and deeds. You could say he was almost as evil as his king. But in the end, the Gray Man only care about one person. Himself. He served the evil king because it was for his own goals and needs, and because he thought that by doing that, he would get farther. That was very different from the Healing Woman, who served the good queen. She served the queen because she loved her country, and all the people in the castle. The queen was like a mother to her, she was kind and well-meaning. And so she didn't like the Gray Man, who served the enemy, who was the enemy. But then... something happened."

Glinda slipped from beneath the covers and scrambled into Shizune’s lap, curling up in her arms. “What happened, ‘Nene?” she asked, looking up into the older woman’s eyes.

Shizune closed her eyes for a moment, sighing softly. She allowed the girl to clamber into her lap and stay there, at least for now. "Well, a magical spell transported the Gray Man and the Healing Woman to a place they'd never seen before! A strange and wondrous new place filled with all sorts of strange new people and things." Her eyes remained close, remembering things as she spoke of them in childish terms. "And so, the Gray Man made an offer to the Healing Woman. He said 'I've been here longer, come stay with me.' The woman, of course, didn't trust him. For good reason. Because at first, the Gray Man was playing with her, like a cat and a mouse. But she decided to stay with him, because she was alone in a strange place and didn't know anyone else."

"But why would she stay with him, if he was evil?" Glinda asked. "He's a bad man and he could hurt her."

"Exactly, she didn't know why, either." Shizune continued. "But there was a strange noise in this new place that you could only hear when you were alone, and the Healing Woman didn't like it. Plus, she decided, maybe giving him a second chance would be the good thing to do, as long as she was careful." Finally opening her eyes, she met Glinda's with a small smile. "Sometimes people deserve second chances, you just don't know until you give it to them."

Glinda tilted her head, eyebrows furrowed. “He didn’t hurt her, did he? That wouldn’t be a happy ending.”

"No... he didn't hurt her." She stopped herself from adding the word 'yet'. In fact, they lived in the same place for a while. And strangely enough, both of them found themselves almost trusting each other, as they got to know one another. Plus, the strange place made strange things happen, which made them realize things. They got stuck to one another once, he got turned into a kid, she got younger, and some more things... but slowly... slowly... they began to realize how close they were getting."

"Did they fall in love, 'Nene, even though he was a bad man? I like love stories too, just like happy endings!" Glinda bounced a little bit, getting into the story.

"Yes, Glinda." Shizune smiled softly. "They fell in love. But neither of them really wanted to admit it, see? They were enemies, they weren't supposed to be in love." Her voice was steadily getting more confidant, less soft. "When the Gray Man told the Healing Woman he loved her... she laughed at him. She thought he was just lying to her, trying to trick her. But then one day another strange thing happened, and the woman realized exactly why everything was as it was. Why the Gray Man did everything he did and what for. And it was that day that both of them realized they were in love."

Glinda's little face lit up with a grin that quickly broke up into a wide yawn. She settled back, laying in Shizune's arms. "What happened? Did he stop being bad?"

"Sort of." Shizune moved her arms to either side of the child so that she wouldn't fall. "The Gray Man stopped being bad around the Healing Woman. But the evil king had found his way to the strange place, and he knew. He knew the two were in love and he didn't like it, so he kept playing with them, making the Gray Man do bad things so he would be sad and so would the man."

“But that’s not fair!” Glinda crossed her arms in front of her and thought for a moment before looking up at Shizune. “Did the queen come and save them from the king?”

"... No, the queen couldn't make it to the strange place." Glinda was a cute kid, she had to admit. "So the two were on their own against the evil King. Their friends tried to help them... but the King was powerful. So one day, the two went off on their own, to try and spend some time together and have fun. And during this time, the healing woman conceived a child. She was going to have a baby, but she didn't know yet."

"That's still not fair." Glinda said, uncrossing her arms and sitting up. She turned and placed a hand on Shizune's stomach. "She's gonna have a baby like you?"

"Yeah... just like me." Her voice wavered for a moment before she got it under control. "But then, the evil king, he was angry. He didn't want the Gray Man doing anything without him, doing things he didn't want him to do. So he cast a spell on him, so that he wouldn't be able to remember whole years of his life. Wouldn't be able to remember the woman he loved."

Glinda frowned. This story didn’t sound like it was going to end happy at all. “So he couldn’t remember the Healing Woman? Or her baby?”

"No, no he didn't..." Shizune's voice grew quiet again. "The woman tried to tell him, to make him remember, but the evil king's hold was strong. Her friends tried too, but they all failed." Oh, but she had to make the story end happy... she just didn't know how.

“Can’t anybody help them, ‘Nene? They need a happy ending. You have to say ‘… and they lived happily ever after,’ ‘Nene. You have to say it.” Hints of tears began to form in the small blonde’s eyes.

Shizune frowned. How to end it, how to end it. "Well... ah, see... here's what happens." She bounced her knees a bit, trying to amuse the child and make sure she didn't cry. "After a while, the woman knew she had to do something. So she found a way to break the spell on the gray man. With the power she found, she broke the spell, and the gray man remembered her. They defeated the evil king with the help of their friends..." Shizune stopped, moving one hand to her face and covering her eyes, voice breaking. "... they lived happily ever after."

Glinda reached up and pulled Shizune’s hand from her face. “Why are you crying, ‘Nene? Please don’t cry…”

"I'm sorry, Glinda..." Shizune turned away, noticing a box of tissues and using one to wipe her eyes. "It's just... I really like that story, and the ending... it gets me every time." She didn't want to be seen crying by a child, by anyone. She'd been doing a lot more often lately, and though she blamed hormones, it usually was more than that. All the stress, all the worrying. It was getting to her, she just didn't want to admit it.

"Oh. I liked it too, 'Nene. But you shouldn't cry, because it had a happy ending and ev-" Glinda was cut short by yet another yawn. "... and everything," she finished.

"Y- yes." Shizune managed to stop her tears, balling the tissue up in her hand as she lifted the blonde child back into her bed, pulling the covers up over her. "It did have a happy ending." But her eyes were distant and her voice soft and blank.

Glinda snuggled once more beneath the blankets, sleep threatening to take her. "Thank you for the story, 'Nene. Will you tell me another one sometime? Another happy one?"

"... Of course, Glinda. I'll tell you another one some other time." She patted the covers down around the child and tried to smile. "Another time."

“Good night, ‘Nene.” Glinda turned over and closed her eyes, letting the exhaustion overcome her.

Shizune stood beside the bed for a few moments. Finally, she turned on her heel and walked out, dropping the balled up tissue as she went. Locking the door behind her, she left the apartment, making her way back to her own to finish her tears.